Among the people facing a rigmarole to get back to New Zealand amid tightened travel restrictions related to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is Wanaka nurse practitioner Chelsea Willmott, who has had a daunting past three weeks.
She and her daughters, aged 11 and 9, rushed to Australia at the end of last year after being told her father, Michael Gannon, was near death.
At the time, it was expected they would be able to return later this month and have a quarantine period at home, but the rules were then revised as the threat of Omicron loomed, leaving the family in the lurch.
Her father had contracted Covid-19 and received the same antibody therapy as former United States president Donald Trump and was now recovering, Mrs Willmott said.
She was frustrated by the lack of a plan for getting stranded New Zealanders back into the country.
The latest batch of rooms for managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) was released this week, but that was of no help to Kiwis in Australia, who were excluded.
Mrs Willmott said she had made her plans in good faith and the lack of options now available left her in disbelief.
"We were not even given an opportunity to try and get home," she said.
"No grace period, nothing.
"We suddenly became stuck in Australia."
Among the stresses piling up are new jobs she is due to start this year, belongings to be packed up amid a house renovation and children due to return to school soon.
Her husband, New Zealand Winter Olympics coach Tom Willmott, is in the US helping the team prepare for the Beijing Games.
Mrs Willmott’s father lives near Melbourne and has been battling cancer.
Her father had been unable to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, but his oncologist gave him a break from the treatment to allow him to get his first shot, Mrs Willmott said.
He became very unwell just after his 74th birthday.
"The doctors looking after my father advised me quite clearly that in their view, due to his cancer diagnosis and Covid-19 infection, that it was unlikely he would survive the infection and . . . he would likely die within the next week," Mrs Willmott said.
One factor that made the decision to book urgent flights easy was she and her husband noticed home quarantine was to come in from January 16.
Several days after she arrived in Australia, the New Zealand Government changed the rules and Air New Zealand had to cancel flights.
Mrs Willmott is due to start two new roles this month and next — one at a rural medical centre and another teaching nurses.
She had worked tirelessly during the pandemic and was helping to build capacity in the New Zealand health system, but "it all seems to mean nothing at the moment", she said.
Under the Government’s border reopening plan, Kiwis from Australia were going to be allowed to self-isolate from January.
That has been delayed to the end of February because of Omicron.
MIQ authorities said they were working with airlines in relation to schedules and future room releases.
